Northside Church - Sydney
Superheroes: Life Lessons from the OT Week 1: Moses
We're listening to another great message from Northside Community Church. Friends, we're starting a brand new series this week, and it's called Superheroes Life Lessons from the OT, which is the abbreviation of goods for the Old Testament, and no prizes for guessing that our Superhero today, based on that reading, is none of it then Moses. And all of these Superheroes, and there are five of them, I hope you'll stay with us for the whole series, they all had experiences with God, which we're going to reflect on, which relates so directly to who we are, where we are, where we're heading. We've got much to learn from these guys. So stay with us for the five weeks. Today it's Moses, next week it's one of the ladies, it's Hannah or Sarah, the Sarah Abraham's wife. So it's a mixture of guys and girls, so be with us next week as well. Right now though, let's bow and pray shall we and seek God's guidance. Father God, in the remaining moments of this service, we want to really open our hearts and minds to receive all you want us to receive, based on the story of Moses. Lord, may we glean some rich truths from His life that will send us forth into this week and the rest of our lives, with some clarity and some real direction and certain key areas of our growth and our relationship with you. And these things we pray in Jesus' name, amen. Well, if you've had any background at all in Sunday school, my guess is that Moses was one of the first guys you ever learned about. If you're in my era, it was probably in the context of a flannel graph presentation. Anybody here remember the all flannel graphs? Really? You're way too young surely, but anyway, they go back a lot of years and not always did the different parts, you know, get in the right position, say sort of move around a little bit. If you're a bit younger, might have been a whiteboard or a blackboard or a wall chart. Of course, the kids today learn about Moses with a gripping DVD called The Prince of Egypt and you've probably seen that if you're a parent or a grandparent. Look, no matter which way you look at it, Moses is a superhero. Giant of the Old Testament. Now, normally that word superhero would cause us probably to sort of switch off. We think, well, look, you know, that's great, Graham. Look, I'm no superhero. I'm no saint. I mean, I've got struggles in my life. I'm barely hanging on in my walk with God. So, you know, I can't relate to any superhero, but can I remind you that superheroes in the world of faith are different. Others in the world of faith are not necessarily people of ability. They're people of availability. They're not necessarily people of strength. They're people of submission. They're not necessarily people who know it all. They are people who are willing to learn. They're not necessarily people who have it all together and who know nothing but success. They are generally people who are learning, growing through a series of failures, a series of setbacks. And so, in that sense, we're all potentially superheroes because now we can start to relate to the situation based on what I've just said, even with a great man like Moses. And there are so many aspects of his life, as I turn to page five, with great relief. And for those who are in the first service, and like, in search of some positive life lessons from Moses, I've chosen several, we can choose a whole lot. And each of these, if we apply them in our walk with God, will increase our effectiveness for him. You see, first of all, Moses discovered it may not be much, but God will use what we have. And I'm referring to the incident recorded in Luke 8, rather in Exodus 4 and verses one and two. Listen to this, then Moses answered the Lord, he's in the presence, the very presence of God, and he's still coming up with excuses as to why he shouldn't lead the children of Israel. Can you believe it? I mean, a personal call of God right there through the burning bush, and he's still not getting it. And Moses blurts out, "Suppose the Israelites, don't believe me, and will not listen to what I say." What should I do if they say, "Oh, he didn't appear to you." So the Lord asked him, "What are you holding?" And Moses answered, "A shepherd's crook." And of course, we know what happened. God tells Moses to throw the shepherd's crook on the ground, and it turns into a snake, and it freaks Moses out. And he says, "Pick it up by the tail," and it turns back into a crook again. And friends, clearly God was trying to make a point, "I'll be with you, my power will get you through." But there's something else of great significance here. You see, at this point in his life, Moses, for the past 40 years, had now in nothing but shepherding. That's what he'd done. He was 80 years old. Can you believe that? When he got the call of God. He thought he was a strapping young guy like Charlton Heston in the movie The Tinker Marmons. No. He was 80 years old when he got the call to lead the children of Israel. So at this point in his life, he'd known nothing but shepherding, and he was carrying the shepherds crook at that time as a kind of a walking stick. Maybe he had a bit of an arthritic condition or something, but that was sort of a reflection of the only life that he knew. So the question, "What do you have in your hand?" is God's way of saying, "I'll take what you can do. I'll take what you're familiar with. I'll take your natural gifting, and I'll use that for my glory." And of course we know the crook was used so many times during the wilderness wanderings. Moses would lift it up, stretch it out, and there is miracles happening, parting on the Red Sea and all this kind of thing. Of course, this is a recurring theme here at Northside, isn't it? As we remind you, our people, that effective ministry is not so much measured in terms of the quality or the excellence of the gift. It's measured by the availability of the gift. That's it. What do you have in your hand? What are you good at? What are you interested in? What are you familiar with? You know, friends, these are the sort of, I mean, if you make these gifts available to God, he'll use them for his glory. And one of the things I love about being in a growing church is that as a church grows, the opportunities to serve grow exponentially. And so the range of gifts that is needed to meet those service opportunities just becomes greater. If you love cooking, we can use that gift. We've got shut in people. We've got new mums who would love to receive meals. And they do receive meals because of people using that gift. If you're good at handyman work, we go to Hope Street every month. As I mentioned with Chris, and we're doing work down there with people's windows and doors and helping people fix things. Like there is no gift that can't be used in the service of God. And I love that about a growing church as the range of service opportunities increases. Here's something else. If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. Now, friends, that's a leadership principle in any setting. It's a marriage principle, by the way, I thought of doing the between the two services. Certainly it applies within the work of the kingdom. I remember when I was speaking regularly to corporate groups in the late '80s and right through the '90s. It was just a little sideline of mine in those days, most enjoyable. And I remember the time when the word empowerment became the big buzzword of corporate life. And this was the word that everybody started to formulate their speeches about empowerment and so on. And of course, empowerment came in when companies moved from the idea of the autocratic follow the leader kind of model to more of a team-based model with leaders serving as a kind of playing coach was a major turnaround in industry. And in that way, companies were able to maximize the gifts and the potential of the employees far more than before. So everybody kind of had more of a stake in the operations, empowerment, you see. And I remember thinking, wait a minute, this is not new. This goes back to the time of Moses. This is biblical. And it really helped me in my own presentations in those days without making the reference necessarily to Moses. But it just hit me like a bomb. And I'm referring, let me take you to a passage Exodus chapter 18 and verses 13 to 18. Let's listen to this. The next day, his Moses and their deep in the desert now, things are really happening. The next day, Moses was settling the sputes among the people. And he was kept busy from morning till night when Jethro saw everything that Moses had to do. He asked, what is all this you are doing for the people? Why are you doing all this alone? With people standing here from morning till night to consult you. And Moses answered, I must do this because the people come to me to learn God's will. When two people have a dispute, they come to me and I decide which of them is right. And I tell them what God's laws come on. I love this in verse 17, then Jethro said, you are not doing this the right way. You are where yourself out. And these people as well, this is too much for you to do alone. You see, friends, poor old Moses was yet to learn the principle of empowerment. But Jethro was about to introduce him to it with the appointment of suitable men to sort of break the roll down and to have other judges who would come in and assist with the presence of arbitration in conflict resolution and teaching. Now, if that hadn't happened, the journey to the promised land would have been short lived because Moses would have burned himself out and the people would have become less aware of God's plan and the whole deal, quite apart from probably tearing themselves apart through all these conflicts they seem to have. It's true, if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. Not a day goes by, not a day goes by that I don't give thanks to God for the vast array of leaders in this church, both lay and my colleagues, such a diversity of background, such a range of gifts, such a unity of purpose, it's fantastic. And one of the main reasons why I've ministered only in two churches in 31 years is because of my desire to see that kingdom outcomes achieved along lasting. It's my desire that strategies developed for mission are enduring and sustainable, not flashing the pans, at the risk of stating the obvious. The fact that things have gone so well here in the last five weeks of my absence should be clear proof that this leader is not going out alone. I'm going it together with all of you and with all of our colleagues and with all of our lay leaders. And that's such an important thing I'm part of a magnificent team. Well something else, you can't talk about Moses without a reference to the wilderness. I mean he spent 40 years with the children of Israel wandering around the Sinai desert. And in doing so Moses discovered sometimes there's a lot of wilderness before you get to the promised land. And there are those of you listening to me now who know exactly what I'm talking about because you are either going through or you've just passed through or you are approaching a wilderness experience. And what is a wilderness experience? What's a wilderness period? Well it can be a time of great anguish. It can be a time of great distress as it was for the children of Israel. It can be a time of huge change in upheaval in one's life as it was for the children of Israel. It can be a time of grief and loss as it was for the children of Israel. It can be a time of temptation. It can be a time of waiting. God where are you? What's happening? It can be a time of feeling disconnected from God as it was for the children of Israel. Friends, I could go on listing all of the experiences of the children of Israel and we would identify them as all the things that we go through in life. Because that's our life, even as the people of God, may I remind you, those who experienced all of these things in the desert were the chosen people of God. And through the Scriptures wilderness experiences both literal and metaphorical are part of the experience of so many of the characters in the Bible, including our Lord Jesus Christ, 40 days in the desert. And so the question for us as believers is not will I ever have a wilderness experience? No, the question is how will I handle my wilderness experience when it inevitably comes as it will? Because that's life. It can be a time of learning or a time of loathing. It can be a time of growing or a time of groaning. The children of Israel had both positive and negative experiences in the desert. They're at their best when they trusted in God and when they followed His leading. They're at their worst when they abandoned Him, went their own way, did their own thing, got all about Him, that's when they're at their worst. Unfortunately for them, unlike us, they didn't have the opportunity to read from a man like the apostle Paul in terms of how he handled his wilderness experiences. We read about this in 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verses 8 and 9, let me read this to you. This is Paul. He says, "I'm often troubled," there's a wilderness experience for you, "but not crushed. Once in doubt," this is Paul, "but never in despair. There are many enemies," and you can interpret that in whatever way you want, "but I'm never without a friend. And though badly hurt at times, I am not destroyed," wow. What a testimony. Friends, you see, the power of choice, even in a wilderness experience, is ours. The power of choice, bitter or better, growing or groaning, loathing or learning. By God's grace and in His strength through the power of the Holy Spirit, we get to make choices even in the darkest of wilderness experiences. Well, here's a final lesson we can draw from this great man. You see, he discovered, stay close to God and it will show. It has to show. Well, I mean, for Moses, it wasn't just stay close to God, he was in the very presence of God, not just once, but on two occasions, Bernie Bush and in the second one, which I'm going to reach you now from Exodus chapter 34, when Moses went down from Mount Sinai carrying the Ten Commandments, his face was shining because he'd been speaking with the Lord, but he didn't know it. He knew he'd be speaking with the Lord, just didn't know his face was shining. Aaron and all the people looked at Moses and saw that his face was shining and they were afraid to go near him. Now friends, there's been a lot of speculation as to exactly what happened here and why Moses faced Sean. I've got a very simple explanation which suits me. I think it was just a special manifestation, just a special manifestation so that the people would realize something exceedingly unique had taken place. Their leader had had a personal encounter with the living God. You'd expect something. Now, I'm not suggesting for one moment that one's closeness to God is always reflected in the radiance of our faces or the glow of our cheeks. That's actually just a condition called rosacea, which many people suffer from, including myself. If you have ever seen me laugh heartily when my face goes red, that's not what I'm saying. What we can draw from this incident is there's a link. There's an irrefutable link between our closeness to God through prayer, through Bible reading, through fellowship and connection group, through worship and communion, through service. There's an irrefutable link between these things and how we live our lives. There has to be. The spiritual disciplines required to maintain one's closeness to God are key to influencing how we think, how we move, how we respond to difficult situations, how we respond to need, how we extend forgiveness, how we show grace and mercy in a Christ-like way. If you stay close to God, it'll show, that's the show. Jesus was a superhero in every sense of the word, not because of any greatness within himself. He had a lot of problems and a lot of points of vulnerability, but friends, he reached a point where he said, "God, I'm willing to be your man. I am willing to lay it all on the line for you. I want to honor you. I want to be available to you." And when he did that, that's when he became a superhero. So here he was, hundreds of years before the time of Jesus living out the words that our Lord would express all those, hundreds of years later, when Jesus said, "Those who saved their life will lose it, but those who lose their life for my sake will find it." In other words, those who saved their life, hold it all in. What's mine is mine? I'm number one, not too worried about anybody else, as long as I look after number one. Like we've seen evidence all around us that leads to a shriveled up life, no matter how much money you've got, that's just a shriveled existence. But those who lose their life, get involved, let it flow, let the gifts flow, let the generosity flow, let the service and the availability flow, that's where real life is to be found. Moses discovered that hundreds of years BC. That's why he became a superhero. Now, friends, do you see my original point, we're all eligible to become superheroes on that basis. That's what the Christian life is all about. We all qualify. I want to be a superhero for him. I hope you want to be a superhero. It could be that there are those in this congregation this morning who are yet to even link up with Jesus and to discover what this journey with him is all about, this great adventure during our prayer ministry. Can I urge you to come to the back and I'm going to pray with you to receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, just like our new members declared this morning. It's the greatest decision you'll ever make. It'll start you on an adventure. It'll take you through some wilderness, it'll take you through some tough times, but you'll be following the light of life and you will get to the promised land. [BLANK_AUDIO]